The present invention relates generally to the field of data transfer, and more particularly to creating a virtual container for the storage and viewing of transferred data when an appropriate destination is unavailable.
Container-based virtualization, also called operating system virtualization, is an approach to virtualization in which the virtualization layer runs as an application within the operating system (OS). When utilizing operating-system-level virtualization, the operating system kernel runs on the hardware node with multiple isolated user space containers, also called virtual containers (e.g., memory where application software executes), installed on top that are simulated. The virtual container includes an application engine, packaging infrastructure, and runtime libraries that allow the application software to run anywhere. When a user accesses the virtual container, the virtual container responds and maintains the appearance of an actual computing device as the virtual container incorporates features that limit, account for, and isolate the resource usage of a process and/or collection of processes (e.g., instance of a computer program being executed).
When users of a computing device access, create, and/or update files through application software, the users may utilize a clipboard in conjunction with a clipboard manager to assist in performing the associated tasks. The clipboard is a set of functions and messages that enables application software to transfer data. As all applications have access to the clipboard, data can be easily transferred between applications and/or within an application. The clipboard manager is a computer program that adds functionality to the clipboard of an operating system. Clipboard managers enhance the basic functions of cut, copy, and paste operations with one or more features, such as multiple buffers and the ability to merge, split, and edit contents; selecting the buffer to store data from a cut or copy; selecting the buffer the paste data should be retrieved from; handling formatted text, tabular data, data objects, media content, and uniform resource locators (URLs); saving copied data to long term storage; indexing and/or tagging clipped data; and searching saved data.
When data is transferred to the clipboard, the selection may also include embedded metadata. Metadata is structured information that describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use, or manage an information resource (e.g., document files, digital images, videos, spreadsheets, and web pages). Three types of metadata include: descriptive (e.g., discovery and identification), structural (e.g., how compound objects are put together), and administrative (e.g., assists to manage a resource). Metadata can be embedded in a digital object (e.g., HTML documents, headers of image files) or stored separately (e.g., database linked to objects described). Internal or embedded metadata stays with the data being described and is available with the data and can be manipulated locally. External or stored metadata allows collocation metadata for all the contents for more efficient searching and management.